Most of these units have all the capabilities already built in, and you simply buy what you need/want/afford.
When these are transferred on the used market, is the seller able to sell the units purchased rights as well?
IE: from another survey company you buy a used Topcon GR-3 unit which they purchased with the rights to have enabled GLONASS, 100k distance, and 5Hz update rate. When you buy the unit, these will keep on working, but if some day you need to reset the whole thing, or replace a certain board, are you going to have to repurchase these features? Are you working outside of the purchase agreement to begin with?
Those are licensed to the device via serial number. So the answer is yes. The Options Authorized on each GPS device. via OAF are transfered to new owner. They are not lost with a reset. Be certain to obtain a list of the OAF prior to purchase. Some options can be leased and will expire.
Lee Green
As Lee said, (with Topcon) once an option is added to the receiver, they are part of the receiver, though they are software based options. Should the receiver board need to be replaced, those options would transfer to the new receiver board. Topcon doesn't keep track the receiver beyond the dealer. I can't speak to other manufacturers but a significant part of our business is used equipment, and it has never been an issue.